Jack Rudy Article Preview for Tattoo Artist Magazine Issue #25

Jack Rudy: If you’re going to apprentice somebody and you’re going to apprentice them right, it’s going to take a minimum of a year, maybe more, depending on the person. But you also kind of have to be married to that person for that year.

So that means you’re not going to be traveling, you’re not going to be doing all the things you’re normally doing, unless you’re having this guy tag along with you, and it’s a lot of work, apprenticing somebody. Then you have these bullshit tattoo schools. What the fuck are they gonna teach you in a couple of weeks? Only the very, very basic stuff.

Shane Enholm: The wrong basics.

It’s only gonna be a fraction of what you really need to learn to do this correctly. And nothing is going to take the place of experience. You can’t get that in a school. They just give you some bullshit certificate and you’re cut loose, like, “There you go, you’re ready to tattoo now.” Because you have this piece of paper? Because you learned some shit? Really? Is that how that works? I don’t think so.

Well, we were talking about the training for blood-born pathogens, and I understand everything has its purpose here—but there’s no art police.

No, and there can’t be. I’ve been part of the APT, the Alliance of Professional Tattooists, since ’92. I’ve been a board member almost that long as well. It is an organization by tattooers, for tattooers, and we’re not the art police, and cannot be, but we want tattooers to tattoo with universal precautions.

In other words, everything is either disposable and/or sterilizable [sic] and that’s it. We want people to practice good, clean, safe, sanitary, tattooing. And let the buyer beware, as far as the art goes. You know, a person has to look at a person’s portfolio, and hopefully determine that everything in that portfolio is actually authentic and not somebody else’s work or whatever. Jack Rudy can be found at Good Time Charlie’s Tattooland in Anaheim, CA.